Exhibit shows women of Vietnam no longer casualties of war

After more than three decades of peace, Vietnamese women remain casualties of dehumanizing stereotypes left over from a divisive war.

Chris Bergeron

After more than three decades of peace, Vietnamese women remain casualties of dehumanizing stereotypes left over from a divisive war.

From Hollywood movies like "Full Metal Jacket" to novels such as "The Bamboo Bed," the women of Vietnam are largely portrayed as slinky hookers, victimized villagers or deadly fighters in black pajamas.

An eye-opening exhibit titled "Changing Identity" at the College of the Holy Cross presents a broad spectrum of Vietnamese women's actual roles as matriarchs, preservers of tradition and artistic witnesses to the emergence of a new nation.

This is not just another grim exhumation of the war's lingering legacy.

Featuring 10 Vietnamese women, this exhibit reveals Vietnam through the eyes of artists turned toward their families, villages and the beliefs that sustain them.

Subtitled "Recent Works by Women Artists from Vietnam," it runs through Oct. 4 in the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery.

Largely unknown beyond Vietnam, these artists are showing photographs, paintings, videos and installations that should remove self-imposed Western blindfolds about their lives and their country's history.

Together they share everyday moments of their lives and land rarely observed in "Platoon" or "Miss Saigon."

Dinh Thi Tham Poong paints exquisite watercolors of rural life as a member of two minority groups. In haunting ink on paper drawings, Nguyen Bach Dan renders beautiful landscapes that seem alive with hidden menace.

Raised in Laos before immigrating to the United States, Phuong M. Do documented her American life and return to Vietnam in unsettling photos that reveal her as an outsider in all her homes.

One of two Vietnamese artists in the show raised in the United States, Do describes photography as a way "to explore the American perceptions of what Vietnam means and what images it conjures up."

In sharp, classically composed images, she captures "the painful otherness" of a refugee like herself who's never entirely at home in her country of origin or adopted home.

Whether with her family in the United States or Vietnam, Do always sticks out a bit, off center as the perennial outsider. "Vietnam was always abstract to me as it is to the American people," she said. "I went (to Vietnam) to really figure out what this word 'Vietnam' means to me."

While appearing Asian and speaking Vietnamese, Do felt her homecoming "created more ambivalence than it resolved."

Making its only New England stop in Worcester, this highly acclaimed traveling exhibit reveals the complex culture of a former enemy through distinctive artwork that carries willing viewers across a vast divide.

Nora Taylor, an author, art historian and teacher who organized the exhibit, said she sought to create "an intimate and personal" show "about women and women's personal voices."

"Many exhibits in the U.S. try to capture something about Vietnam with a capital (letter) V that overwhelms viewers," she said. "Exhibits like that don't correspond to reality. They show some imaginary Vietnam left over from movies."

The author of "Painters in Hanoi," Taylor has studied Vietnamese art since 1992 often living there when not teaching in the States. She is professor of South and Southeast Asian Art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Unlike male Vietnamese artists who feel their work "must carry the nation on their shoulders," women artists, said Taylor, feel free to make art about themselves, their families, their work and social roles.

"I chose 10 artists for the exhibit because I wanted it to include a variety of media, including painting, photography and video. I felt each woman artist represented some aspect of Vietnamese women in Vietnam. Each has their own personal story yet each comes from a different background," she said.

The exhibit was brought to Holy Cross at the suggestion of Assistant Professor of Anthropology Ann Marie Leshkowich, who felt it represented the complex lives of post-war Vietnamese women in ways that could be instructive to students.

"I liked this exhibit because it focuses on recent art produced in the past decade which has been a time of tremendous change...that provided women with new opportunities and new challenges," she said.

Leshkowich credited Cantor Gallery Director Roger Hankins for bringing the show to the college in a timely manner.

The director of Holy Cross's Asian Studies program, she praised the exhibit for "presenting visions of contemporary Vietnamese society that departs from the expectations many Americans have about a war-torn society."

Instead, Leshkowich said the show's art exemplifies two "themes that percolate through the exhibit." They are the re-evaluation of women's familial roles and their need to harmonize traditional and modern forces that shape their identities.

For many visitors, the show's artists are like tour guides leading them into homes, social gatherings and landscapes that recast predictable expectations in striking new ways.

Dinh Y Nhi renders the "Daughters of Mr. Nguyen" series in enigmatic gouache on paper drawings that explode stereotypes about how Asian women are "supposed" to look. The oldest artist in the show, Dang Thi Khue expresses concerns about the erosion of valuable traditions in paintings and installations that expose the core of Vietnamese women's identities to viewers.

And Vu Thu Hien evokes the "invisible forces that make up the Vietnamese imaginary world" in mystical watercolor scenes painted on bark paper.

While introducing new artists to Americans, Taylor urged viewers to "just open your eyes, look and have your own intuitive response."

"There's no war in this art. It's not about politics," she said. "These are individual women who have no blanket statement to make or overall message to give. They're artists and their works are what they have to say."

THE ESSENTIALS

Located in O'Kane Hall, 1 College St., Worcester, the Cantor Gallery is open Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturday, 2 to 5 p.m. The exhibit is free.

Several events have been scheduled in conjunction with the event. They are: